WEDNESDAY, June 3, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Children with COVID-19 frequently have negative chest computed tomography (CT) findings, according to research published online May 22 in the American Journal of Roentgenology.
Sharon Steinberger, M.D., from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues conducted a retrospective review of CT findings and clinical symptoms of 30 pediatric patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 seen in China from Jan. 23 to Feb. 8, 2020. Patients ranged in age from 10 months to 18 years.
The researchers found that CT findings were often negative among children (77 percent). Ground-glass opacities with a peripheral lung distribution, a crazy paving pattern, and halo and reverse halo signs were positive CT findings identified in children. A correlation was seen between increasing age and increasing severity of findings, consistent with reported symptomatology in children. Follow-up chest CT was performed in 11 of 30 patients (37 percent), with 10 examinations showing no change.
“The clinical and CT findings for children may be less severe than those noted in previously reported adult populations, and further studies are needed to assess the appropriateness of CT in the diagnostic workup of pediatric patients,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.
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